Historical French Crammer. By Arebne Darmesteter. Edited by Ernest Muret
and Leopold Sndre. Edited by Alphonse Hartog. (Macmillan and Co. 12s. 6d.)—We cannot pretend to give here an adequate appreciation of this admirable book. It must suffice to mention its completeness, on the one hand, and the vivid interest which the author contrived to give to details which might easily have become tedious. The history of the language, its growth out of the Latin original, the victory of the speech of the Isle de France over its cognates, are among the notable points of its external history. The external history falls into four divisions,—Gallo-Romance, Old French, Middle French, Modern French. So much for the introduction. Then we have phonetics and the history of pronunciation, every letter being treated in elaborate detail. This is a book of vast learning expressed with admirable lucidity.—The Study of Colloquial and Literary French. Adapted by P. Shaw Jeffrey, M.A., from the German of Dr. Eduard Koschwitz. (Whittaker and Co. 5s.)— Mr. Jeffrey gives eminently practical directions to those who seek to learn French, whatever their special aims, whether, as it may be put, they seek the accomplishment or the serious knowledge. How he is to prepare himself at home, whither he is to repair abroad, what text-books he should use, what should be his choice of literature,—on all these points he has much to say, and says it with shrewdness and good sense.
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